źAurora Record╗ was a rare piratical label used by Petersburg businessman K.Mazel. Besides źAurora╗ he owned more common but also piratical label źTonophone╗. In 1911 the company was transformed into legal źZwukopis╗ label.... [more]

A Berlin company that produced records and gramophones. Its products appeared on the Russian gramophone market in 1910. Grammofonnij Mir (The Gramophone World) informed, that źAnker-Record╗ had recorded some actors of Russian opera: well-known baritone O.M.Kamionskiy, bass S.D.Varjagin , tenor A.Rozanov, singer M.A.Emskaya, and others. The quality of records was asserted as "good", but noted, that demand for them is low. Probably, that is why the źAnker-Record╗ had not a long activity... [more]

Warsawĺs branch of gramophone company źSyrena Record╗, created in 1914 by Mr.Tempel, one of the brothers from well-known ôTempelĺs gramophone dynastyö. There were at least two sizes of źApollo-Record╗ discs: 5 and 10 inches (according to A.I Zhelezny also 7 inch, but such records were not yet met) though they used the same sizes of labels. The records characterized by more dense grooves made by very thin sapphire needle. The price varied from 8 to 12 kopecks per record. The branch located on... [more]

Small Warsaw company owned by Z. Klamborowski was active during 1909-1913 and located on 54 Przyokopowej. Probably, the factory was set up already in 1898 in Poznan, and in 1909 moved to Warsaw.... [more]

Artistotipia was a "prestigious" phonograph records label originally manufactured by the Berlin gramophone society ôInternational Extra Recordö, and later by Kiev factory "Extraphone". The first records appeared in 1909. It was extremely interesting family that included popular performers from gypsy and romance singers up to opera prima donnas and outstanding Ukrainian singers of that time.... [more]

źBeka Records╗ was a record label based in Germany, active from about 1903 to 1925. Before the Great War Beka also made gramophone records for the United Kingdom and Russian markets under the źBeka-Grand-Record╗ label. Russian repertoir of the company was vast; according to A.Zhelezny the first records were made as early as 1905 (1906 according to P.Grunberg). Beka often sold their Russian matrixes to another gramophone companies. After the Great War broke out in 1914 it stopped... [more]

The German company that was founded by J.G.Murdoch in 1909. Besides Germany, the company imported records into United Kingdom and Russia. It had close relations with źDacapo-Record╗ that was the major supplier of matrixes, however it made its own recordings too. The Russian State Archive of Sound Recordings (RGAFD) holds four records: V.Shuller (tenor) and V.Tauber (bass) duet sings excerpts from operas ôFaustö(Gounod) and ôMarthaö(F. Von Flotoff), gypsy songs ôDistaffö (Pryalochka) and... [more]

In 1908 źLyrophon╗ company introduced new label źGloria╗. These records are currently great rarities. They should not be confused with more common electrically recorded źGloria╗ records that were re-introduced by Carl Lindström in 1930.

A small gramophone company which appeared in St.-Petersburg in 1911. The board and pressing plant located on 2 Karavannaya Street. The owner of the company was I.F.Zdanovich, the co-owner and sound expert A.L.Levin. The first records with źGnom Concert Record╗ label appeared on sale by the end of 1911. The records quality was poor; the repertoir was limited to performances of minor actors. By the end of 1912 źGnom Record╗ records disappeared from shops and never appeared again... [more]

The histories of this company as well as the history of the invention of gramophone record and gramophone itself are inseparably related to the name of talented inventor, engineer and businessman Emile Berliner. In 1893 Berliner had formed the United States Gramophone Company that located at 1410 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C.. This company offered the first seven inches disc records in November 1894 on the Berliner Gramophone label. After various mergers, divisions, lawsuits, and injunctions,... [more]

It was a small Polish company active from 1904 to 1914. The records were two-sided, 25 cm, with dark-blue label. All known records feature their own orchestra named either Warsaw Orchestra ôGryfö (╣ 1115 ľ waltz ôSwallowsö) or Country Orchestra ôGryfö (╣╣ 1206 ľ polka ôPartyö,1210 - polka ôStars above the Vistulaö, 1241 ľ polka ôBavarianö).

Originally it was a German-only label, founded in 1907 in Berlin. Over the time, Dacapo spread out its activity on other countries, particularly Austro-Hungary, Britain (1910), and Russia. Russian repertoire was vast and interesting. Because of difficulties related to records import to Russia and associated with it duty expenses, źDacapo-Record╗ in 1911 decided to join źMoll, Fogt and Kibart╗ company for united operations in Russia and transferred all Russian matrixes to the Aprelevkaĺs factory źMetropol-Record╗... [more]

ôMaison Fabricienne Industrielle et Commercielle Aron Biberö located in Warsaw. Besides phonograph records, the company also manufactured several models of ôpatentedö gramophones ôZaryaö that were sold for 20 to 60 rubles. (See. Aron Biber Trade Catalog)

Following is the extract from the Catalog regarding phonograph records:

ôThe Biber Company offers phonograph records in a special catalog... [more]

The small Petersburg factory "Zwukopis", was engaged in recording and manufacturing of phonograph records, and acted on Russian Grammophone market from 1911 to 1913. The company was owned by businessmen I.Mazel and S.Zhitlovsky; the main office located on 13 Voznesenski pr., St.-Petersburg. Originally they plan to name it ôSvetopisö, the corresponding announce appeared in the ôGrammofonnij Mirö (The Gramophone World) magazine in 1911, however it is unknown if any records... [more]

ôThere are cases of sort of ômimicryö under the original label that was used for copying. For instance, there are discs that nearly indistinguishable from źZonophone╗. Only close inspection will reveal the substitution of one of the letters... [more]

Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903.

Seaman had worked for Emile Berliner's Berliner Gramophone. Seaman decided to start his own company to produce disc records and disc phonographs. Seaman's Zon-O-Phone records... [more]

The author has no information about this label except brief mentioning in A.Zhelezny [1] and A.Tikhonov [2] books where it described as one of ôpiraticalö labels that in the beginning of 20th century supplied records on Russian market. Similarity with Carl LindströmĺsźParlophon╗ suggests possible connection between these two, however neither proofs nor disproof of this hypothesis were ever found. It is also curious to note the ômimicryö of this label under label of źZonophone╗ that was not rare at that time.... [more]

There is little information about this ôCompanyö available, however, thanks to the actual records uploaded on our website we can make an interesting observation: źCantophone Record╗ used a very specific and vivid numbering system: a Cyrillic letter ô└ö or ô┴ö indicating the recordĺs side followed by whitespace and a simple number same for the both sides. Since exactly the same numbering system was used by two other piratical labels źAurora Record╗ and źTonophone Record╗ both belonging to the infamous ôgramophone pirateö K. Mazel, one can safely... [more]

The exact date of appearance Lyrophon in Russia is to difficultl to establish, but it is known, that the representative of the company in Russia was somebody J.M.Joelson. It looks like Lyrophon had two large recording sessions: the first one as soon as 1905, the second one circa 1910. They made very interesting recordings of artist of Imperator Mariinsk Opera N.A.Bolshakov (tenor) performing arias from ôPagliacciöLeoncavallo and ôPique DameöTschaikowsky operas, recordings of K.G.Van-Brin... [more]

In 1907 źBeka-Record╗ issued several records with źMaria-Record╗ label. Probably, they were made by order of Benois family. Only soloist of Marijinsky Theater in St. Petersburg Maria Nikolayevna Kuznetsova-Benois (1880-1966) was ever recorded on them. The labels were decorated with her photograph, but information about manufacturer was missing. Their origination from źBeka-Record╗ can be with great degree of certainty established by matching graphic styles of the matrix... [more]

The history of this label begins in August, 1910 when three German businessmen Gottlieb (Bogdan) Moll, Albert Vogt and August Kybarth founded on the Aprelevka station of the Moscow-Kiev railway road the first in Russia records pressing plant for manufacturing shellac mass for gramophone records as well as pressing records taking orders from others gramophone companies. Soon after, the factory started manufacturing its own original records... [more]

There is no information about the company. There are only two known records with Armenian tunes performed by Gevorg Shulavreli accompanied by a duduka trio of Tetroashvili. Handwritten matrix numbers are seen under the labels and duplicated on the mirror. They are also the catalog numbers.

The label sample is from the collection of Dmitry Golovko, city of Mezhdurechensk.

ôMonopol-Recordö was a small German company that appeared on Russian gramophone market in 1911. The representative office in Russia located on Nevsly, 53 in Petersburg. Russian recordings were made by order of merchant A.Levin... [more]

ôSoon Maselĺs rivals appeared, and they acted in exactly the same way as himself. Once Masel became furious because so called źfirms╗ źInternational Extra Records╗ and źNational Records╗ faster than him issued piratical records that źTonophone╗ was about to. Masel thrown on the floor... [more]

The źNeographone╗ label began its activity in 1902 in Moscow and was the very first one in the field of manufacturing piratical ôcopiedö phonograph records in Russia. Since in those early years did not exist the legislative foundation protecting authors rights (copyright laws), their business had thrived, and the company even opened the branch in St. Petersburg.

"In the April of 1912 on the Russian Gramophone market appeared records with unknown before label ôNew Imperial Recordö. They had a very unusual label design: the upper part was scarlet with a lyre picture and a black inscription ôNew Imperial Recordö, while the lower part was green. After close inspection of those records, one could promptly realize that in reality they were ôSyrena Grand Recordö records with scarlet stickers applied to the upper portion of their labelsů"... [more]

Label ôOdeonö was created under the aegis of the International Talking Machine Company, located on 24 Lehderstrasse, Berlin. It was founded in 1903 by Max Strauss and Heinrich Zunz with financial support from Frederick M. Prescott, who just quit the job of the head of European Zon-O-Phone branch. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome is represented on the Odeon record label. The company has quickly drawn general attention by its double-sided phonograph records... [more]

The gramophone records Homokord (after 1923 some labels say also Homocord) were manufactured by German company Homophon Company GmbH established in 1905. The company headquarters was located at Alexandrienstrasse in the part of city of Berlin known as Kreuzberg.

In the beginning they supposed, that Homokord will be able to establish itself on the Russian market, they even planned to open a branch in the Polish city of Kalisz. However, ill choices... [more]

Parlophone is a record label, founded in Germany 1896 by Carl Lindström (1869-1932), a Swedish inventor living in Berlin, it originally produced phonographs or gramophones with the brand names ôParlographö and ôParlophonö and eventually began producing records as well. The ₤ trademark is not the British pound sign, but a German L, for Lindström. During the war, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets. Parlophone established a master... [more]

Pathé was founded by brothers Charles & Émile Pathé, who were owners of a successful bistro in Paris. About 1890 they saw an Edison phonograph demonstrated at a fair and, captivated by the device, arranged to lease one as an attraction at their bistro. The early phonograph soon brought so many curious people to the Pathé establishment that lines formed to listen to it. Some even asked about purchasing phonographs for themselves. The brothers decided that, rather than give more business to Edison,... [more]

Polyphon Musikwerke was established by Gustave Brachhausen in 1887 in Leipzig, Germany. It was the world's largest manufacturer of disc music boxes; the period of greatest popularity was from 1895-1905. At one time the company employed over 1,000 people. In later years, it sold mechanical pianos, pneumatically-played pianos, and other musical automates, and also phonographs and records. The Company assisted in establishing the U.S "Regina Music Box Company"... [more]

Small phonograph company źPoliakin & Sons╗ operated from 1910 to 1914 [1]. The label began its activity in Berlin by issuing records with Russian repertoire using masters bought from German companies źStella╗, źBeka╗ and etc.

In the end of 1910 the company relocated to Odessa, where it built a small plant for manufacturing of phonographs andů pressing of piratical records [2]. Judging by the existing copies of records, the company achieved certain perfection... [more]

The board and the factory of Premier Record were based in Budapest. Managing Director was a certain Pete who also did recordings using special invented by himself membrane. The company acted in Russia from 1910 to 1911 and distributed its products on the southwest of Empire. The chief representative was a certain A.Kustsh... [more]

In 1901 when gramophones were only about to became fashionable, the soloist of Imperial theatres N.N.Figner called the recording of voices on phonograph records as "profanation of art", and solemnly declared, that he will never sing for a "mouthpiece". But it is difficult to resist a temptation! In two years phonograph records with his voice were sold all across the Russia, bringing the actor considerable income. And in ten years N.N.Figner headed the Russian Joint-stock Company of Gramophones (RAOG)... [more]

"More than hundred years ago in the Russian musical shops appeared on sale unusual form record players made by domestic company of V.I.Rebikoff. This company dared to challenge the foreign firms specialized on sales of phonograph records and devices for their playbacků"... [more]

In 1903, Richard Jacob a Russified German founded the Russian gramophone factory "Jacob-Record" in Moscow. The company was one of the first one not only in Russia, but also in the world that began producing two-sided records (initially records were one-sided). The gramophone repertoire of Jacob-Record totaled to more than 6000 numbers of by 1904. The greatest selection was for opera arias. Operetta enjoyed the special success in public. They played cheerful sketches from "Golden Fish", "Geisha" in front of... [more]

Records with this label were issued in 1914 in Moscow by the źRobert Kenz╗ trading house. The Head of company M.N.Fedotov sponsored M.E.Pyatnitskyĺs expeditions to the rural areas for recording folk somgs in solo and chorus performances. There is no information about manufacturer, but no doubts that they were printed by źBeka-Record╗. The clear indication is the fact that their matrix numbers are aligned with the series of Russian matrix numbers źBeka-Record╗ for 1914... [more]

Records with such label were manufactured in 1916 by the Aprelevkaĺs factory of ôRAOGö company under a special order of the ôSkobelevskij Committee of Aid to Wounded and Sick Soldiersö. They used existing matrixes of ôMetropol Recordö company that built and owned the factory before WWI... [more]

August Friedrich Burchard had a shop in St.-Petersburg, he also was known as businessman, engineer and inventor. The advertisement about gramophone records, recorded and printed by his order, was published in the Grammofonnij Mir (The Gramophone World) magazine (December 5, 1911, ╣ 22-23, p. 25). Currently it is not known on which plant the records were pressed, supposenly it is źMetropol Record╗ that used to take such kinds of orders. The beginning did not have further development... [more]

ôAround the years of 1908ů 1909 records with the ôSyrena-Recordö label had become more and more frequently seen on the shelves of Russian record stores. They immediately started attracting customers just like Homerĺs seductive and sweet voiced beauties depicted on the record companyĺs label. Competing record labels took notice. The most savvy of them had realized that this was not just another ôone-day wonderö dressed up with a fancy name that used to grew like mushrooms at that time, but a solid enterprise that... [more]

Austrian company ôScala Recordö was named in honor of the famous La Scala Opera House in Milan, the façade of which is depicted on the label. The owner of ôScala Recordö was Sigmund Weiss (Siegmund Weiß) whom we can consider as a pioneer of the Austrian recording industry. The company had close relationships with German öDacapoö for which it made recordings in the Viennese concert hall and Italian öFonotipiaö that marketed it in England from 1911 to 1919. Unfortunately the Russian history... [more]

źStella Record╗ label was used by German company źSchallplatten-Vertrieb GmbH╗. The headquarters and the plant located in Berlin. It had one more factory in Warsaw that was dedicated for pressing phonograph records solely with Russian repertoire. The company began Russian recordings only in 1913, but earlier it pressed Russian records from źHomokord╗ and źAnker-Record╗ matrices. After the outbreak of WWI the company halted all its operations in Russia... [more]

There is no information about affiliating this label to any gramophone company. The only known facts are that they appeared on the Russian gramophone market in January 1912 and that they were pressed on the Warsaw factory źSyrena Record╗. Probably, ôPhonogrammaö is the name of a trading house issuing record pressing orders, just like it was done by other trading houses, for instance ôShuster and ╩░ö, ôRobert Kenzö and others... [more]

"Fonotipia" is the nickname of an Italian company with the long-winded moniker of Società Italiana di Fonotipia Milano. This concern was founded in Milan in 1904 as a branch of the Lindstrom Phonograph Company of Berlin, which had Odeon as its main label. Fonotipia also had an office in Paris where it recorded French artists, issuing most of the results on Odeon rather than Fonotipia. The Fonotipia Company changed hands countless times, but managed to stay in business until 1948, although its defining... [more]

"At the beginning of the last century along with Petersburg, Moscow, Riga and Warsaw, the fifth źgramophone╗ Capital of the Russian empire was Kiev. The branch of the Berlin company źInternational Extra Record╗ started to operate there in 1909. Originally, Germans performed their operations on the shores of Neva River via źThe Trading House Guess╗, but serious Capital's rivals had forced them to search for other markets and partners. The choice had fallen on Ukraine ľ the land, rich in musical traditions and bright talentsů"... [more]

The label was introduced by Carl Lindström group in 1907 in Germany for issuing cheap records from ôexpensiveö masters of Fonotipia, Odeon, Beka, Favorite and several others. Soon after, in 1908, the British branch was established as well. The label was discontinued in Germany around 1910, where it was replaced by blue "Odeon" which even continued Jumbo's numerical series. In UK the Jumbo label survived beyond 1910; even after the Great War broke out in 1914 the British branch continued to press... [more]

ôJanus-Recordö records with double head of an Antique Roman god, a protector of gates and entrances, were manufactured by German company ôVereignigte Schallplaten Werke Janus Minerva G.m.b.H.ö since 1906. It was a small gramophone enterprise located in Hannover on Limburgstrasse, 1. The enterprise had status of joint-stock company headed by Hermann Deutsch. In Russia, the company mentioned for the first time in 1907. In 1909 the company obtained ôpatent application number 6,746 for improvements... [more]